Day 2 - Lushan Mountains (cont.)

(Lushan Mountain overlook)

Day 2 - Lushan Mountains

Lushan is a very important cultural/historical/political collection of 99 mountain peaks.  Numerous important philosopher, poets, monks, artists, and political leaders (including Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong) have had residences or spent considerable time here.  Today it is a national park and a popular tourist destination for the Chinese.

Lushan is known for being somewhat enigmatic, usually hidden behind a shroud of cloud and mist.  Our visit was no exception.  The early part of the day was misty with light rain, which became significant rain for the latter part of the day.  However it was not cold or windy, and the weather did not seem to deter the crowds.  We hired our China guide and driver for this special trip (not part of the usual adoption visitors itinerary).  

It took about 90 minutes to reach Lushan from where we are staying in Nanchang.  It's interesting riding the highways here because every so often everyone has to stop to pass through another toll booth and security check.  A picture is taken of the van through every checkpoint.  The road into the mountains becomes really twisted, which is when the fun begins.  Chinese drivers don't seem to have much patience for one another.  To navigate around slower traffic they take seemingly insane risks.  It's common for other drivers to just start honking, merge into oncoming traffic with blind curves and pass six cars and a bus.  Our driver isn't quite that impatient, but it's still a wild ride.  The interesting thing is that I call it "impatience", but really it's some kind of mutual understanding drivers all have.  I never see anyone loose their cool or get angry, but everyone constantly cuts each other off, honks constantly, and pulls stunts I would never do in the States.  

Our first stop is at the former residence (one of many) of Mao Zedong.  He only lived here very occasionally, but it's still a major deal to the Chinese.  His personal belongings are enshrined, and his bedroom and bathroom are kept exactly as they were when he used them.  

Next we visited an awesome vista of one of the valleys.  Our observation deck / pagoda thing was on a SHEER cliff, dropping hundreds of feed straight down.  The swirling mists rising and falling over the ridges was surreal!  We met a guy there who walks up to that spot every weekend from one of the towns at the base of Lushan.  He was cooking a backpacking-style lunch in the pagoda using a camp stove, and was dressed in western-style Gore-tex rain gear.  He was pretty excited to meet Americans, so we all posed for a group picture with him.  

We had lunch at a "humble restaurant".  Being a tourist destination, our guide explained, many of the lunch spots were rather expensive.  We were led upstairs to a long hall with numerous rooms...like a college dormitory.  Our guide started opening random doors, looking for a suitable room for us.  After checking several, we came upon on room that was actually some guy's bedroom.  Awkward!  So we backed up one room and entered in.  It was a private room with a couple of large round tables.  We were provided eating "kits", with plates, glass, and bowl all shrink wrapped together.  Our guide explained that it's common for some restaurants to do this to give the impression that the utensils are extra-clean.  She pulled out a glass, held it to the light, and proved her point.  We were brought sever entrees, including tofu/pork, some kind of celery stif-fry (really good, but it's some kind of plant I've never tasted before), and a mushroom dish.  It was a real experience eating "humble-style" for sure!

After lunch we visited the Flower Path, made famous by an ancient poet.  It was really nice, with rock inscriptions made by the Poet himself hundreds of years ago.  After that we hit the restroom (another real experience) and then one of the popular mountain trails.  

This trail was outstanding!  It was a narrow cobblestone walkway that meandered on the sheer sides of one of the mountains.  There were numerous vista points, commemorative pagodas and shrines, and MONKEYS.  We were totally caught off-guard by a small troupe of monkeys, begging cookies off the hikers.  Knowing how bitey monkeys can be when food is on the line, I was a little unnerved.  There were some baby monkeys, too, which was fun.  The trail was super-crowded.  People walked this trail and hit the points of interest at a breakneck speed.  It was hard to stop walking ever, because there was a never-ending line of fast-walking tourists and umbrellas right behind you, being led by really loud squawking tour guides with loud speakers.  Even though it was raining hard the whole time, nobody seemed to mind.  I was surprised that so many tourists dressed-to-the-nines to hike in the rain, high heels, dresses, and umbrellas decorated with rhinestones walking on slick, steep, cobblestone trails.  

The thought of it makes me laugh as I write this!  It does surprise me how lightly and rapid everyone was visiting the shrines and locations that had supposedly deep and heavy cultural significance.  Nobody seemed to stop to even think for a minute.  It was all about getting through the trail rapidly without much consideration for the destinations or meaning along the way.  I mention this because I realized later that this experience was very symbolic of how much of people's lives are lived here in Nanchang (and most cities I suspect).  China is charging ahead at a breakneck pace, but I wonder if some things are being lost or missed along the way.

We were soaked and plenty tired after that, but took the public bus and hiked to one last hike to a famous vista.  It was totally cloudy, rainy, and windy.  It was a bust, and confirmation that it was time to go.  

We had some oatmeal in our rooms and called it a day.  Tomorrow...Brielle!  

[I'm writing this a couple days after the fact, and we actually already have Brielle.  Don't let the timestamp on the blog post confuse you.]

Day 1 Continued (photo)

(Hong Kong Airport)

For those of you might be wondering what has transpired over the last year or so since my last meaningful blog post, well...life! Eleora's adoption brought her into our lives, and every day is just full. I'm not much of a blogger, so there haven't been any updates here since we came home from Ethiopia more or less. But I'm bringing it back now to share and journal some of the details of our trip to China. We are here in Nanchang, China to be united with our adopted daughter Brielle. It's been almost 6 years since we began the adoption process, so its actually pretty surreal to finally be here to get her. After weeks or preparation, we boarded a Cathay Pacific plane at Los Angeles Intl. for a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong. It left at about midnight, so we were all pretty tired to begin with. Audrey slept for about 12 hours of the flight! Hali initially fell asleep but woke up as usual at 6:30 am PDT like she does every day. Amber and I only managed a few hours of uncomfortable sleep, which made the flight all that much longer for us. I was extremely uncomfortable and feeling pretty ill, so Hong Kong didn't come soon enough! We enjoyed some coffee and croissants once the shops started to open. We arrived at HKG at 5:30 am, but our next flight wasn't until about 11:15, so we had some time to recover. The 1:30 to Nanchange flight on China Eastern Airlines was a breeze. We were promptly met by Mary our guide and through customs without a snag. Our driver brought us all to the Galactic Peace Hotel. We have two adjacent rooms, which are very nice! We had dinner in the hotel. It was a shame we were all super-tired and messed up by that point, because the food looked really good. We just didn't have much of an appetite. I have to say there was one dish of beef and diced dragon fruit stir-fried together that was very good! We hit the hay at 8:00 pm, totally exhausted. The bed is literally harder than the floor, but I did not care one bit at that point! At about 4:00 am we all couldn't sleep any longer, and we were all starving. The same thing happened when we went to Ethiopia! So we were there for breakfast as soon as they were open. The hotel buffet is outstanding! We had lots of familiar things available to eat, but we definitely tried a few new things, too. Mary arrived at 8 to take us on a guided tour of the Lushan mountains...(to be continued tomorrow when I'm not too tired to see straight).

Here We Go...CHINA

This is a quick blog post attempt from my phone to see if this thing works.  If it does, I will invest more finger gymnastics to post something more elaborate.
Bryan

Ramsey Family Korea Adoption

Our good friends the Ramseys have recently begun the pursuit of adopting a girl from Korea!  They're such a wonderful family, and have HUGE compassionate hearts for orphans.  Check-out the blog they've recently launched, and don't miss their first fundraiser with an iPod give-away!

Home & Together

We're home!  I wasn't able to post again before leaving Ethiopia since the Internet was so sketchy and slow.  So this is a little after-the-trip update.  


We spent the last few days in Ethiopia mostly hanging out at the guest house with Ellie.  There was a lot of getting-to-know-you that needed to happen, and it was good.  She typically needed feeding 2 times per night, which wasn't too bad.  
On Friday we toured the Robera Coffee Factory.  That was pretty cool to say the least, but Amber and Eleora weren't digging it too much.  Amber hates coffee, both in smell and taste.  Ellie hates loud noises.  I did manage to haul away 40 kg of roasted coffee to bring back home.  Awesome!


The flights home were pretty grueling, but we were blessed in a few big ways.  First of all, we weren't sick.  Amber and I were feeling really ill the day before leaving.  We were worried that we'd both be ill with a baby on a plane for 21 hours or more.  We were feeling good on travel day!  Despite making a trip to the Emirates office in Addis Ababa to secure seating, a bassinet, and a hotel voucher for our stay in Dubai, we were denied all of the above.  We ended up being granted all these needs along the way!  Finally, Eleora was a really good baby.  She ate and slept without a lot of drama for the whole trip.  I love how God provides for needs as they come up.  I only wish He'd give me forward notice that it's all taken care of so I wouldn't worry.  I guess that's where faith comes in.


We're dealing with the jet lag now, which isn't pleasant.  Even still it's nice to spend time as a newly expanded family.  I'm back to work tomorrow.  Time to experience the normalizing of our 5 person group!


This morning I uploaded a final collection of pictures from the trip to the album on SmugMug.  It's especially nice if you use the "slideshow" feature.  I hope you enjoy it.